Virtual Meditation and Fitness with Joshua Ford

Today's guest is Joshua Ford, CEO and co-founder of HipTrain. Joshua and his trainers work to make personal trainers accessible to everyone so that your health can be a priority again. 

In our conversation today, we'll talk about the benefits of virtual personal trainers and how meditation became a part of HipTrain's offerings.  Meditation is great for stress relief, mental wellness, and clarity, but it's not always easy to do on your own. Maybe you've tried some apps, but didn't stick with them either.  Matching with a trainer at HipTrain can help you stick with it and really get the best physical and mental health benefits.

Try out HipTrain for a week free when you list Magic as your referral at https://hiptrain.com/

Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:59

welcome back to a Magical Life. I'm your host, magic Barclay, and today Joshua Ford rejoins us. He is the c e o and founder of Hip Train. Welcome back, Joshua.

Joshua Ford: 1:12

Thanks, magic. I'm glad to be here.

Magic Barclay: 1:14

Now, in our last episode, we touched on a lot and there's so much more we can explore here. So first of all, tell us who hip trained

Joshua Ford: 1:25

services. Yeah, so really hip train is the most personalized it can get, right? And so the way that it works is that we, you, you sign up, you tell us what your goals are, you tell us your injury history, you tell us what you're looking for in a coach, and then I. We have humans that read that, and we'll pair you with one of our coaches based on what you're looking for. So magic, maybe the coach that you're looking for is someone who would not be a good fit for me, and that's totally okay. Right? And so we're gonna pair you with a coach, and you'll work out with that coach every single time, right? And so, whether that's your meditation guide, your yoga instructor, your personal trainer, you'll, you'll be with that same person each and every time. and so, Their job is to make it about you, right? Their whole MO is how do I build something for you? And so one of the things that I think we're most proud of at Hip Train is we've done 15,000 sessions, but no single session has been the same. So it's been 15,000 unique sessions. So we have everybody from. People who are 10, 11, 12 years old to people. I think our, our oldest customer is 84 years old. We have people in wheelchairs. We have people who are ex Olympian athletes. We have people who are working out for the first time in their life. We have people who are trying meditation for the first time in their life. We have people who have done meditation for. 20 years. And so whether you're a beginner or advanced, whether you feel really comfortable in the discipline or totally uncomfortable, um, we're here for you. And we have, like I said, a, a range of coaches, to pair with you to make sure that it's the right fit. and this is your first time ever working out. We're not gonna pair you with someone who's gonna scream at you and make you do pushups and burpees and all that horrible stuff, right? And if you tell us that you want to become. An Ironman athlete. Uh, well then, yeah, we'll, we'll find someone who will, who will kick your butt a little bit and, and, and get you there.

Magic Barclay: 3:20

Okay? So I'm going to address something that's rather unpopular to discuss here in Australia. All right? And that is the world of personal trainers that think screaming at you, make vomit is okay. And that if you look on paper like a gym risk, That you should be treated as less than I will use my own body as an example, lots of damage. Used to do power lifting. Used to have my own gym. Now, constant neck pain at about an eight out of 10 stenosis of vertebrae metabolic syndrome. So what I would look like on paper is a walking. Risk category, and many PTs here are certainly not trained to deal with structural imbalances. So for those that have these kind of extremes or a disability or some sensory issues or something, how can your team make fitness

Joshua Ford: 4:23

inclusive? Yeah, it's, it's a really, really good point. And what we have found is people come to us after trying everything and saying, Generally speaking, unfortunately, fitness is a one size fits all approach and it fits people who are totally able-bodied and in good shape. And that's just not where I'm at right now. and so we have trainers with different backgrounds, and they'll put together programs for unit. And one of the things that I tell our clients a lot is that ultimately as the client, you're the boss, right? Not not the trainer, right? And so when you say, Hey, I've got. My neck pain, that's eight outta 10. I can't do this. I can't, you know, doing sit-ups, for example, strains my neck. I'm not doing that. That's. Absolutely what we want you to say, right? We, we want you to share that information and be the boss and the trainers. We train our trainers to be adaptable and to understand that and to put, you know, to look through their notes and keep copious notes on you know, what you've said and. Both at signup and then every session going forward. And so I think that, um, part of it's what we look for in a trainer, right? So we don't want those people who are going to scream at your face and you know, the bootcamp instructor and you know, we've got a couple who can do that if that's what you're looking for. But really for us, what we look for in our trainers, our people who. Understand the body at a really, really high level. Uh, and people who have empathy, right? And people who can build relationships and have strong eq. Um, and honestly, we think that it's pretty much 50 50 split to make you a good trainer, right? That you can know everything about the body and have no eq. You're just not gonna be a good fit for hip trained. Right? And you know, obviously if you great EQ and you're a great human being, but you don't know anything about the body, you know you're also not gonna be a great fit. And so when we look for our trainers and we put them through our rigorous process to come onto, hip trained, we're looking for people who have both of those things, right? The knowledge and the expertise with the human body. The EQ and the ability to build relationships and to listen, and it, it, it should be a two-way street all the time between our trainers and our clients.

Magic Barclay: 6:37

That sounds great. Now listen, there's so many things that the body does. To stay safe. And on this podcast I talk about it all the time. You know, in functional health, we know the body wants to be safe. So for some of the listeners who may be, have had experiences with a fitness instructor or a gym and they kind of come to a machine or an exercise or a piece of equipment and all the alarm bells go off in their mind, what do you say to that feeling of. Needing to be safe.

Joshua Ford: 7:12

Yeah. Well, look, I think you should trust your body first and foremost, right? And I think that, whenever you don't know how to do something or you get to something and you say, well, I've never done that before. I'm not really, you know, I don't know how this works, or I, I just don't wanna do that. I, I think it's voicing that and making sure that, again, you should be in the driver's seat here. you know, I think one of the things that we really want our clients to do, and, and this is something that we, we train our trainers on, is. When they're telling you your workout and they're working out with you, we want them to show you first, right? So really, you should never be just told to do something. You should be given the example of what is the proper form, how do you do that? and, and then you can give it a shot if you feel comfortable doing it. but not vice versa, right? It should never feel like a, a quiz or a test where you are seeing can, can you do this or you can't do that. Really, our job is to, to show you. The correct way of doing it in a way that you don't injure yourself. and then, provide any form corrections that we need as you do the exercise. Um, and you know, one of the other things that we really want our personal trainers to do is, Alongside you, right? think a lot of people feel awkward or feel judged even when it comes to working one-on-one. And we really want that to be more of like a workout buddy, um, who's just really knowledgeable and, and really nice than someone who's kind of judging whether you're doing well, whether you're in shape, whether you're outta shape. Um, that's not really the vibe or the the experience that we want our clients to have.

Magic Barclay: 8:37

Great. Now, Joshua, I'm opening the floor to you. What is something that you feel the listeners need to hear?

Joshua Ford: 8:44

Yeah, thank you. so One of the things that we've really seen at Hip Train, and has opened my own mind, over the last year, is the importance of mental health. Right? And yeah, I think thankfully this has become less and less of a taboo area, right? I think maybe even. Five years ago, definitely 10 years ago, this was something that, people were kind of scared about and, and didn't talk about and kind of tucked away or, or put under the bed. and so one of the things that we've seen at Hip Train is that, you know, a, we've got a lot of people who are signing up and becoming hip train members who are actually coming to us.'cause wanna relieve stress or anxiety and, and they're doing physical training, but that's kind of the way that they're doing that. But, um, we also had clients come to us and say, you know what? I, I actually need some more, right? I need, I need more help with mental health. And so we went and we created a new vertical that we launched about two months ago. that's meditation, right? And it's guided meditation. And, you know, I don't know, for people listening, um, whether you've tried meditation or not. I'm someone who, you know, I've dabbled with it in the past. I've tried, you know, the, the apps like Headspace or Calm, I've tried, silent meditation by myself. I've tried it in group settings, but I've never really stayed consistent with it. and it's one of those things that I really would kick myself because every time I meditated, I felt better, right? And I, and I really did see the, the results. And especially if I could string together three, four, or five days in a row. I really did feel less stressed and, and less anxious, but I had a hard time with accountability and, you know, just like everybody in my mind would wander. And I'm, I'm definitely not the world's best meditator, but what I found, just train myself on the meditation side is having someone guide you and, you know, you just show up and they'll take it from there and they'll help you through that. and that accountability of doing it every single. Stay, or every single week, or two times a week or whatever, the cadence that you think is best has been incredibly helpful for me. and it's funny because as I've done it more and more, I crave it right? And so, I started with one time and then I said, okay, I'm actually gonna do it two times. And then I said, well, so maybe I'll do it. Three times, and you know, maybe I'll do it in the morning and then I'll also do it at night and I'll, and that will be kind of a way for me to disconnect from work at the end of the day and kind of reset myself and rebalance myself. So I think one of the things that I, I would really urge everyone listening is, to find time not just for for physical health, but mental health and whether that's, Meditation, whether that's, whatever else that you find that is helpful, put as much emphasis on that as, as you do your physical health, because they are intertwined and, we've just seen the effects, you know, I've personally seen the effects and we've seen that with our clients as well.

Magic Barclay: 11:28

So in modern medicine, depression is the number one diagnosis and. The number one prescription written is for antidepressants or SSRIs, the number two being statins. Now, these are both quite toxic medications and certainly do not address root cause. They cause more problems than they solve. Yeah. So how can fitness and meditation done in your own home alleviate the need for these introduced toxins? Yeah.

Joshua Ford: 12:05

I'm glad you brought this up, magic, because personally I'm someone who believes exactly what you just said. It's that, you know, introducing toxins to your life is really never the ideal solution. Right. And it, it just kind of creates more problems down the road. And, um, you know, I think a lot of people who are on these, these kinds of drugs really feel of themselves. You know, I, I, I just think that it's a pity to not live your life in as much of a vibrant life as, as you can. And so if you, you are kind of muted, that kind of defeats the point, right? And so, I'll speak just from a personal perspective. I am always in a better spot in my mental health when I'm working out. Always, my girlfriend will laugh at me on vacation that, I'm still gonna wanna wake up and probably try to get even a light workout in, even if it's 20 minutes just lightly cycling or going for a long walk. And I always say it's not because I'm doing it for physical purposes. A lot of times I'm probably burning very few calories, but it's a mental health thing. And I know that if I don't do that in the morning, the entire time I'm laying at the beach or I'm walking around the city, I'm just mentally, I, I can feel the stress and the burden on me. and so for me personally, I kind of have to carve out and, and again, it doesn't necessarily have to be this like, massive workout. It can just be a walk. One of the things that I started doing in Covid was, you know, everybody was shut in their, their homes and, and locked up. But one of the things I started to do is, even though I wasn't actually going to a physical office, I would kind of do a pretend commute, right? So I would just walk around. My apartment a couple times where I would, you know, in the beginning of Covid and then later on I would go and, you know, walk around outside. And, that was really, really helpful for me for, from just a mental health perspective of, getting some exercise, but also just changing scenery and, and kind of breaking up, you know, getting out of bed and, and getting to my computer to start the day. I. You know, a meditation perspective. I think honestly for me, part of meditation, part of the beauty of it is just being away from technology. And I think unfortunately, while technology is great and it enables many, many things in our lives, Also there's just information sensory overload. And I think that if you think about kind of the caveman and cavewoman, uh, like they, they just didn't have the, the, the stimuli that we have today. And so I think that that can often be very unhealthy. And I think things like social media can, can be actually quite negative sources. And so I think one of the beauties for me with meditation is just, Being away from technology, not feeling the buzz in my phone, not, hearing emails come in, not checking social media and, and just having some time. Um, and again, like I said, I'm not the best meditator, right? My mind wanders, I'm thinking about what I need to buy at the grocery store, what I have to do. And I'm, I'm still working on becoming better. But I think just carving out 15, 20 minutes a day where you just think and pause. It sounds so basic, but if you actually think about how many times have you spent 15 or 20 minutes without any technology, without anybody else, and just thought and just let your mind wander and let you know, just think. Unfortunately, I think for a lot of people, we just don't do that anymore, and I think it's a really healthy practice.

Magic Barclay: 15:16

Agreed. And as someone with self-confessed shiny things syndrome in her brain, you know, meditation has always been a bit of a struggle.'cause that moment that I am calm, quiet, peaceful, 10,000 ideas pop into my head. So for the listeners out there that do struggle, Keep persisting. This is a moment that you will get that aha moment when you really have calmness and stillness in your mind, even if only for 15 seconds.

Joshua Ford: 15:48

a hundred percent. And honestly, that's probably what I'm shooting for. If I do a 15 minute meditation, I'm probably aiming for 15 seconds of, of glory. Right. Of just really finding that zen. And so, just like anything, the more that you do it, the more comfortable you become, the better you get at it. And so whether that's, writing a book, uh, painting. riding a bike or meditating, you know, just hang in there. Keep, trying and keep getting better. And, I find, in things that I'm anxious, I'll gi I'll give you an example. you know, I travel a lot. I've traveled a lot for, for work and for pleasure, but I actually really hate planes. I hate takeoff. Uh, and so one of the things that I'll do before takeoff is I'll meditate and I'll, you know, I've got five minute meditations on that I download on my phone. Just kind of close my eyes and meditate and, um, I find that that for me is the number one thing that helps me kind of just relax and, and put myself in a better head space, um, before taking off. And so even if it's only a five minute thing, you can reap the rewards of that.

Magic Barclay: 16:46

Love it. And look, we do need to say the world is changing. People maybe want to leave home less. They're cutting back things in their life to really focus on time with loved ones, time with themselves, time with things that matter. So how does Hip Train help them with that refocusing, repurposing. Yeah.

Joshua Ford: 17:12

Well, I think that one of the things, um, that, that's really great about hip train is that you can do it from anywhere, right? Everything is done via video conference. And so you can do that from your house. You can do that from outside. You can do that from a hotel room. You can do that from a friend's house, right? You, you can do it from a gym. but it allows you to just, again, carve out the time. And I think that, For a lot of us, we get into these routines and then we have to travel for work, or we go and visit family and we get thrown outta the routines and it takes us some time to get back into them. So I think one of the things is, you know, the portability of being able to do it wherever you find yourself. Right. I think you're right. Like a lot of people. Covid obviously is an awful thing and, and lot of people, you know, really suffered with covid, but I do think one of the silver linings is that people got to slow down for the first time and, and maybe forever and, and really got to reexamine things. I think you're right. People kind of said, well, maybe I do wanna spend more time with loved ones and maybe I do want. To spend more time at home, whether that's working from home or just, you know, maybe not traveling as much. Um, and so I think one of the other great things about hip train is that because you don't have to commute, right? You don't have the extra 20 minute drive to the gym and then 20 minute drive home, right? So we have a lot of people that carve out. 30 minutes in the middle of the day, and maybe it's part of their lunch break, maybe they just take a break from work. But you know, you can pretty much do the workout, jump in the shower real quick and be ready to go all within 45 minutes. Right? You do your 30 minute workout and then, you know, 15 minutes to shower and get back in, back in front of your computer for your next meeting. And so I think that just being able to save time and, and just save complexity. And we have a lot of O older adults who use hip train and one of the things that they say is, They love not having to, to leave their house and being able to do it from the comfort of the house and just not just the commute, they don't have to make, but the, the comfort and not feeling that they're like a fish out of water in a gym and they don't look like everybody else. And you know, we have a lot of people who are brand new to fitness, right. And who may not be in the peak shape of their life. And so, For many people, it can be embarrassing, right? To go to a gym and, and look around and say, wow, everybody looks great, except for me. Right? And, and, and you really feel that. And so I think that one of the things that Hip Train really helps people with is, you know, making you feel comfortable, making you feel wherever you are, right? And so whether that's, you know, you're doing it at the foot of your bed, you're doing it outside on the lawn, or you know, or you're choosing to bring het train to a gym and, and you're doing it in front of other people. Uh, and so we're able to kind of work with people wherever they wanna do that and. I think that's been really helpful with this. You know, like you said, magic, this reckoning of what people are looking for and where, where they want to be.

Magic Barclay: 19:56

Most definitely. So people can find you@www.hiptrain.com. Thank you so much for joining us.

Joshua Ford: 20:07

Sure. Thank you Magic. I appreciate

Magic Barclay: 20:09

it. I have loved these last two episodes and I really do urge the listeners jump on, give it a try, see what it's like. That's exactly what I'm doing later today, so

Joshua Ford: 20:22

try it. Well, we'll love, we'll love to help everybody.

Magic Barclay: 20:25

Listeners, this was your episode. 2, 2, 2, Joshua. Thank you for your time. Sure. Thanks a lot. And listeners, thank you for your time. Go ahead and leave us an Apple review, Spotify review, a review anywhere that you are listening to us because we really do appreciate you jump onto our Facebook at a Magical Life podcast and tell us who you wanna hear from. Do you want Joshua to come back? Do you want, uh, him to do maybe a guided meditation or one of his. His instructors to do that. Do you wanna hear more about depression and fitness because you know we can really open this podcast up to you. This is your podcast for now. Go forth and create your magical life.